The science of behaviour change is undergoing a groundswell of change, informed by combining the findings of experimental psychology and behavioural economics together with advances in neurology. Applied games and gamification developers should be applying the fruits of this labour in their development process, right? In theory, yes, but in reality many of the research …

Games and gamification can be used to motivate and support citizens’ behaviour in energy use, but this is not without it’s potential downfalls. Since most games rely on some method of internal or external reward, associating rewards with activity is not to be taken lightly. One false move and you risk serious negative impact, rather …

Promoting inclusivity using gamification and game mechanics has been one of PlayGen’s areas of focus since 2007. Although inclusivity can have such diverse descriptions as including participants on grounds of gender, race, class, sexuality or disability. Our definition of it has been to provide gamified solutions for reaching out on issues which many of the …

Kam Star, our chief play officer – and the founder of the Digital Shoreditch festival – shared his view of crafting gamification that focuses on behaviour change at the Behaviour Design day at Digital Shoreditch 2013.

This is the first part of an article which explains what type of rules we follow when constructing a social influence platform. 1. The platform must target a specific group. First off there are a few concepts you need to know from neuroscience to get you started. The first is the reticular activating system (RAS). …

Today virtually all of us are part of an online community: from Facebook to Foursquare, we all have a place on the Internet where we hang out. Social networks have become part of our daily routine. This change in behaviour is very significant, as it shows how we react to innovative interfaces that fulfil our …

Gamification is now regarded as one of the most effective and lucrative methods of marketing available today. Rarely have products or brands been able to exercise such control over consumer behavior and this is why gamification and the use of meta games is being employed across the internet. Gamification is set to continue as an …

Gamification is a great way to maximize user loyalty and drive profits for your website. There are a variety of different ways to go about making the transition towards game-centric strategies. Firstly, gamification specialists like BigDoor Media have successfully made their business by replicating this model. These specialists provide the tools and expertise to companies …

When it comes to explaining the growth of the gaming industry, many believe that humans are instinctively competitive in nature. As a collective, we spend a majority of our lives seeking to maximize our potential and in many cases, the presence of an outside influence will ignite a further desire for self-improvement. So here we …